A family dinner at a Hanford restaurant Tuesday evening was minus one son but plus three Hanford West High School band teachers. Maria and Jesus Rios lost their son, Jesus, three weeks ago in a tragic car accident. But they want the memory of their son to live on. So the couple invited band teachers Tricia Adams and Ruben Amavisca and Band Director Lisa Butts to dinner at La Fiesta Mexican restaurant so they could present them with a plaque and a donation of $1,000.

Butts and Maria's brother, Danny Escobar, agreed that the donation would likely be turned into a scholarship for band students to go to college.

"We loved him just like you did," Butts said as she embraced Maria Rios.

Escobar said the donation will be replenished each year, so that scholarships can be given out annually. He added that the donation would ensure that someone could benefit despite their family's loss.

"This is what he would want me to do," Maria said of her son. "And the band deserves it."

Jesus was the drum major in Hanford West's band. He also played clarinet and performed with the winterguard and colorguard. Maria said she always found Jesus in the backyard dancing with her broomstick when he was a child but never knew why until he got to high school.

Jesus was among the three class of 2008 graduates found dead on the morning of June 10 in a canal off the intersection of 13th and Jersey avenues. Details are still vague in the deaths of Rios, Carlos Sigala and Cory Kennedy. All three victims -- who had graduated from Hanford West the previous week -- died of fresh-water drowning.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the three were on their way back from the Tachi Palace Hotel & Casino in Lemoore, where they were last seen the day before going to seek job application forms for summer work.

The vehicle was reportedly heading eastbound on Jersey Avenue when the driver failed to navigate the T-intersection with 13th Avenue. The failed northbound turn overturned the vehicle right into a nearby canal running parallel to the roadway.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2424.

(July 2, 2008)